I blow a piece of hair out of my mouth, both Torika and I were looking down, sitting around the lounge in distinct seats, we were letting our hair fall into our faces, blocking the visibility from outside. It was inconspicuous enough to avoid being recognized, but it was also natural enough to avoid suspicion.

I slowly fork a brussel sprout into my mouth. The innkeeper woman had also prepared some food for us so it would look like we were just eating our dinners.

As one of the few Shesuans in the city, the Red Division assassin undoubtedly would recognize me pretty quickly if he saw my distinctly colored eyes. And given Torika’s past all of the Red Division has either heard of, or knows Torika’s face. I close my eyes.

“After we do this, leave the city immediately, you’ll be in urgent danger every hour you stay here.” I translated Torika’s signals to the innkeeper. “We will take care of your son, I cannot promise that he won’t be harmed; however, you have my word that he won’t be killed. Afterwards, I will find a way to bring you two back together again.”

I open my eyes once more. A couple more seconds until the expected time arrives.

However, the door opens early. I reflexively grip my fork tighter but then try to relax. The instant either of us draw any suspicion, I have to spring into action whether I like the timing or not. I’d rather do this on my terms. Torika and I talked prior and she agreed to follow up on my timing rather than hers.

“You feeling a little better ma?”

“Oh sweet little Saen. When will you have time to stay home for more than a couple of hours?” The innkeeper runs up to her son, hugging him.

“I’m working on it, don't worry, I’ll be able to make some time soon. Anyways, how was your head this week? Better or worse?”

“It’s been good. Better than last week, that's for sure.” She weakly smiles then turns to the side and tries to hide a cough.

“Hey, hey, you need to get some rest.” The son looks around. “ I’ll take over the front desk for a couple hours, here I’ll bring you upstairs.”

The two disappear upstairs.

I look at Torika and nod.

Once he comes down those stairs, get ready to—

A shadow flies back through the door, without any time to react a dagger plunges into my chest, perfectly into my heart, spraying blood all over the room before I could turn my head.

—I quickly stand up, only a single second in the past, with my adrenaline pumping. I focus Anku to my eyes, then twirl my Sek into my right hand while swatting the air in front of me with my left palm, catching his wrist in motion.

I then quickly raise my leg, catching his knee before he could slam it into my stomach, and then with both of his arm and leg under my control I slip underneath his armpit and hold my blade to his neck from behind.

“Gotcha.” I mutter to myself, with my hand behind his head and my blade on his throat; he could not move an inch.

Torika jumps out urgently and rushes forward, pushing her palm against his forehead.

I could feel him going limp, so I slowly loosen my hold, allowing him to slip to the floor.

Sorry. Did you get hurt?

“Yeah, only twice though.” I say flatly before turning to the person on the floor.

“Stop it. Please leave this inn, I beg you.” Saen struggles, lifting his neck up a bit but his arms and legs were completely dead. “And…” Saen stops talking as soon as he sees Torika.

“Are you… Were you the previous commander? Torika?” He asks hesitantly.

“Yes. She is.” I step in front of his sightline and crouch down. “Let’s make this quick, tell us where Yeluh is and we’ll let you go.”

“Yes! Yes! Of course I can! It has to be under one condition however!” He vigorously nods his head.

“Don’t make it har— Wait really?” He’s just going to tell us just like that?

I look back as Torika pats my shoulder, signaling me to move out of the way. She takes a notepad out of her pocket and begins to scribble.

Your mother is sick? Torika shows him the notepad.

Saen squints as he reads each word. “Ah, yes. You are correct. It’s a fatal disease that degenerates the lungs. Yeluh’s been coming over every month to delay her condition, but he says there’s no permanent cure.”

Torika looks down at the notepad and pauses before writing her next line.

Do you believe him?

“I wouldn’t be asking for your help if I did.” Saen bows his head slightly

I suppose so.

Torika then writes down some more notes. Let me head upstairs for a little bit. I’ll see what I can do, for now, tell my friend over here what she wants to know.

Torika then closes her notes and heads upstairs.

“You’re looking for the two male teenagers Yeluh caught recently correct?” Saen then asks.

“Yep, those two, although first you need to convince me why you’re trustworthy.” I decide to prod him a bit.

“No problem. I am bound to Yeluh since I rely on him for my mother’s health and wellbeing, so I would never have done this if the former commander didn’t show up. I promise you I have no personal loyalty to Yeluh or the Red Division.”

“What if they find out that you’ve betrayed them, aren’t you worried about retaliation?”

“That’s fine. As long as we’re free.” Saen doesn’t elaborate further.

I look down at the ground for a couple seconds, do I really trust him? I didn’t know how to describe it. His cooperation just felt too good to be true. He did kill me twice a couple minutes ago but… That was before he saw Torika. I was well aware of Torika’s almost legendary reputation back in the past, I don’t doubt that he knew of her exploits. But…

Hmm… I pull out my Sek, and reach forward, before stuffing my fingers and the handle into his mouth, pointing the tip out.

“Hagh?” He rears back confused.

“Just a little experiment.” I lean forward and let the tip poke into my throat just a bit. All he would have to do is tilt his neck a bit and! I would be dead in an instant. If he does go through with it, I would know whether to trust him or not.

Saen holds his head deadly still, not moving an inch. I stare his eyes down, slightly smiling, edging him on, not a hint of fear shown on my face.

“Mmmmmmm.” Saen mumbles loudly, his eyes grow wide in a desperate attempt to communicate with me.

“Last chance to kill me in three, two, one.”

I pull back and take the Sek out of his mouth.

“You are some type of crazy! Why??”

“I didn’t trust you.” I say, thinking it would be kinda funny.

“You trusted me enough to put your life on the line though?” He says incredulously.

I silently chuckle to myself. “Eh, I just have good intuition, don’t think about it too hard. I can trust you now though, tell me everything you know.”

A couple minutes later, I learn exactly where they’re being held. At the loading docks by the river, where they unload and load a bunch of goods on and off merchant ships, there was a secret entrance to an underground system that extended all across the city, an old shelter of some sort, built centuries ago, repurposed to become a base of operations of some sort for the Iquen, a literal criminal underworld funnily enough, but even more hidden within that network of tunnels was where the Red Division operated. The secret alliance between the government and the Iquen to conduct their most dubious research and activities.

It’s frequently empty on slow days, very few of them like to hang out there since the air was very musty and moldy.

“Slow days as in what?” I ask Saen.

“Slow days are what they sound like, days where not much stuff is going on. No goods transport, no smuggling deals, a lot of people like to stay home and relax instead.”

“Okay, cool, then once we go down there how will we find Yeluh?”

“Sound travels very well in those tunnels, you should be able to hear a bunch of distinct sounds. The river warehouse entrance I mentioned is also pretty close to the Red Division site so you should be able to find them pretty quickly.

“Alright cool. I think I’m done here then.” I stand up and begin walking upstairs. “I’ll get Torika to fix you.”

“Hold on, I have to warn you. It’s not just Yeluh, there’s another person just like me working with Yeluh. Name is… Roko. Been there way longer than I have, a veteran assassin.” Saen continues.

I nod my head. With the Red Division involved it was just a matter of time before his name showed up, nothing I didn’t expect.

“As long as he tries to kill me I should be fine…” I mutter. From our brief exchange back at The Eye he was moderately more skilled than I was, nothing crazy like Celestia or even Rudeus though.

Saen looks at me curiously. “Wait so… Okay, here’s the situation. Yeluh, after talking with Roko about you he believes that you somehow had some sort of special predictive ability and decided to make you a minor target of interest. Is there some truth to that?”

My smile immediately turns upside down. There’s no way he knows about my death loop curse right? I mean, I was being a little careless with the ability right there, but there’s no way…

…”Hey, what do you know about me from Roko and Yeluh?”

“They weren’t totally convinced of anything but, from what I saw and their accounts of you. My theory is that you…” Saen snorts. “This is probably crazy, but I think there’s some way you can see into the future or travel back through time.”

I look at him sideways. “Huh.” Is all I could say in response, I probably need to be a bit more careful using my curse. If they figure out the conditions for activation which is my death, then I could be beaten extremely easily.

“Hey, I’m just speculating, I don’t really care what the truth is.” Saen says as he sees my worried face.

I look back in the doorway as Torika suddenly pokes her face through.

Come up, I have something to show you. She writes.

She then disappears up the stairs, neither of us follow her. She then reappears and bows her head a bit in apology to Saen, who was still paralyzed on the ground.

Saen flexes his arms and fingers a bit before getting up.

I have my blood mixed through your bloodstream now, don’t try anything stupid. Torika shows him another note. Looks like she didn’t fully trust him either.

“Yes, yes. Take as many precautions as you need.” Saen says patiently.

The three of us then climb the stairs.

“Mom? You okay?” Saen pokes his head into the inn room then immediately freezes.

I bump into him. “Hey what’s going on?”

“What did you…” Saen stutters in shock.

I lean over his shoulder and look into the room. The innkeeper, Saen’s mom, was lying on the bed. Her face was pale and her breaths were shallow. Most notably however, was the blackened skin on her chest, with sludgy black veins spreading all across her torso. Clearly her condition had worsened dramatically since a couple minutes ago.

Immediately I could feel a tug on my back as Saen grabs my Sek and lunges for Torika.

Before anything happens Saen goes limp once again, running headfirst into the wall, my sek clattering against the ground.

Calm down and let me explain, your mother is fine, just needs some time to rest. Torika takes out a pre-prepared note and shows Saen.

“How? You made it worse!”

Torika then takes out another pre-prepared note and shows him. He takes a second, moving his head back and forth, reading the lengthy note. I curiously take a look as well.

Your mother’s ailment was called Natlin’s disease. It’s definitely rare, but a cure for it has already been discovered years ago. What your mother is suffering through right now is a poison that triggered within her heart when I tried to fix it. There’s no doubt that this was set by Yeluh in case someone attempted to cure the disease, so I’m afraid he’s aware of our actions right now.

Torika flips the page as she runs out of room on the first note.

If the poison spreads through her blood, she will die rather quickly. So right now, she’s in a biologically static state while I try to break down the poison. I need to warn you however; if anyone tries to move her, the static state will end and poison will begin spreading through her body.

… The note ends.

“So? What’s the problem? Break down the poison right now.” Saen says aggressively

I cannot, this compound is very novel to me. I estimate at least a week until I find a safe way to break it down. Torika slowly writes down.

Saen stares into space before he begins to understand the predicament. “Oh, so we’ll probably be raided soon.”

I, who had been loosely following the conversation, then chime in— “Hey, condolences about your mom, but we’re on a time limit here, no way we can wait a week. Also Avery can’t stay if this inn’s about to become a battleground.” I suspiciously look in the room next to us, where Avery was still at. I had no doubt that she was listening, so I was half expecting her to object right then.

“That’s fine. There’s nothing more you could have done. I understand.” Saen responds. “Go out and rescue your friends. I didn’t expect for to be easy for me either.” Saen gets up and hands me my Sek, his paralysis undone once again.

I promise I will cure your mother when we return. Good luck. Torika writes.

I sheathe my Sek, already making preparations to leave.

“Right, Avery! Let’s find you a new place to stay at.”

…

“Avery?” Don’t tell me this girl ran off? I begin to walk forward, about to check the room. Before the door opens and nearly slams into my face.

Avery

“I’m here.” I walk out the door jarringly quickly. My breaths were quick and shallow, my eyes were staring off into space, focused on something else.

“Hey, don’t be nervous, you’ll be fine.” Polly slaps me on the back as we leave the inn.

“Mmh.” I barely respond to her encouragement.

Torika gives her the sideeye, but then looks forward.

Good luck. She mouths to me.

I look back and then slowly nod in acknowledgment. As we walk outside, I begin to memorize the route of which Polly and I travel, tracing a path all the way back to this inn.

Taiga

I stare at my mask. Plenty of new marks had appeared since yesterday, being fed more and more Anku from other people. Eight marks for eight deaths.

I squeeze my fists. My emotions were running high, but I was no longer conflicted.

Shaz

I stare into a corner. I thought I could resist but… How can I resist when I don’t even get the chance to try. I figured exactly what Yeluh was doing every time he walked into this room. He was stealing my consciousness, I examine my nails. From nail length, I estimated the time stolen was around six hours every time. For six hours I would be turned into a doll, that had all my knowledge but none of my decision making.

I bury my head in my lap; how much does he know already? What have I unleashed upon this world?